Red Tails

Very good movie!

In talking with others, you will either really like it...or really hate it. I honestly think part of that would depend on - well - how racist you are. I heard two older men talking about "rewriting history" ... "The Tuskegee Airmen were just escorts." I knew these men and asked, "Oh. And if the Germans started shooting on the air convoy, these fighter pilots just ignored them? Interesting."

Let's give credit where credit is due. Yes, the movie is "based" on true events. No, every word uttered on screen is not historically accurate. IT'S A MOVIE PEOPLE!

However, The Tuskegee Airmen had a fight with the US military going in strictly because of their color. But look what they accomplished!!!

From Wikipedia:

In all, 996 pilots were trained in Tuskegee from 1941 to 1946, approximately 445 were deployed overseas, and 150 Airmen lost their lives in accidents or combat. The casualty toll included 66 pilots killed in action or accidents, and 32 fallen into captivity as prisoners of war.

The Tuskegee Airmen were credited by higher commands with the following accomplishments:

• 15,533 combat sorties, 311 missions
• 112 German aircraft destroyed in the air, another 150 on the ground
• 950 railcars, trucks and other motor vehicles destroyed
• One destroyer sunk
• A good record of protecting U.S. bombers, losing only 25 on hundreds of missions.

Awards and decorations awarded for valor and performance included:

• Three Distinguished Unite Citations
  • 99th Pursuit Squadron: 30 May–11 June 1943 for the capture of Pantelleria, Italy
  • 99th Fighter Squadron: 12–14 May 1944: for successful air strikes against Monte Cassino, Italy
  • 332d Fighter Group: 24 March 1945: for the longest bomber escort mission of World War II
• At least one Silver Star
• An estimated one hundred and fifty Distinguished Flying Crosses
  
• 14 Bronze Stars
• 744 Air Medals
• Eight Purple Hearts
  

In 2007, President George W. Bush and Congress presented the surviving 300 men with the Congressional Medal of Honor. President Bush saluted them to help atone for the slights they received while they were serving their county.

But remember - they were ONLY escorts. Riiiiighttttt!

Let's NOT rewrite history. But please report it completely and honestly.

The Grey

I like Liam Neeson so went to see "The Grey" tonight. If I ever unwind, I'll go to bed.

Two problems with the movie:
1. Really, REALLY bad closeups of the fake wolf heads. If they weren't going to get a closeup of some real wolves, why not go the computer generated route? Some of that work can be so realistic that you can't tell the fake from the real thing.

2. When someone falls into frigid water in the middle of winter in Alaska when temps are well below freezing...if they don't get those clothes off, they will freeze to death!

Sheesh. Somebody out there thinks movie goers are idiots.

Next week I'll go see "Red Tails" - about the Tuskegee airmen.

Movie: One for the Money - Warning Spoiler Alert

AGAIN - SPOILER ALERT!!!

Best casting: Sherri Shepherd as Lula. She was LOL funny.

Katherine Heigl did an okay job as Stephanie.
Jason O'Mara was a decent Morelli.
Daniel Sunjata - WHERE WAS RANGER'S PONY TAIL?!
Ana Reeder aka Connie - Where were the boobs? Not as much cleavage as Connie should've had - or big hair either.
Have no idea who either actor/actress were that portrayed Stephanie's parents.
Debbie Reynolds as Grandma Mazur. I like Debbie Reynolds. And she was funny as Grandma Mazur. But she's not the least bit bony. Not the body I had in mind for Grandma.
Patrick Fischler - don't have an idea who he is - but he did a good Vinnie.

Things that were wrong:
The Plums' house is supposed to be a duplex with non-matching paint jobs on each half.
After Lula was beaten, she was not rolled out of Benito Ramirez's pickup. Nor did she spend just a few hours in the hospital. He carried her up the fire escape and left her outside Stephanie's bedroom window. He nearly beat her to death.

I've got to reread One. There was no...and I do mean NO...sexual tension between Stephanie and Ranger. Hmmm...wonder if it started in Two.

I do intend to see it again. :D

True Grit

Okay. Now I've seen them both. Which is best?

John Wayne was a fantastic actor. This is one of the few movies he starred in that I did not like. I think that the lack of acting ability of the other two affected his acting as in "Who gives a care?" Glen Campbell could not act - PERIOD. How he ever got the part in the first place is beyond me. And poor Kim Darby just flat overacted her part. The blame, I guess, has to be placed on the director...Sam and I watched the new version this evening. I liked it. Jeff Bridges is definitely NOT John Wayne, but he did a decent job and had I never seen John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn, I would've liked Bridges' in the role much better. Matt Damon has already proven himself. LOL When he (as LaBeouf) nearly bit his tongue off then lisped throughout the remainder of the movie. And that little girl! Hailee Steinfeld. Double thumbs up! And just as an aside...Barry Pepper compared to Robert Duvall...so sorry. Robert Duvall wins that comparison hands down!My complaint...the 'cadence' of the speech. It was more like they were on stage instead of on film. It was really a bit disconcerting to watch because of that.

But...I still enjoyed the 2010 version much, much better than the 1969 movie.

Movies and Quilts

!!!!Okay!!!! Where'd the underlines come from???

I've seen some really good movies lately.

Blind Side... Okay. If you haven't heard anything about this one, you must be living under a rock!

Sherlock Holmes... I LIKE Sherlock Holmes. I watch the weekly series on LPB (my PBS station).

It's Complicated... Hilarious! Yet thought provoking.

Shogun, Have you made the molten cakes yet? Did you notice that the recipe on the box states that EACH cake serves 2?! Carol and I just laughed. They weren't really serious...such a fun-loving company! ;o)

I received a couple of comments on yesterday's post about the ONE hand-pieced, hand-quilted quilt at the quilt show.

I prefer a completely hand-made quilt. However, I have machine-pieced and hand-quilted. I've also learned to do some machine quilting on my regular sewing machine...for small items like tablerunners and placemats...children's quilts...and for people who appreciate my quilts, but may not take as good care of them as I would.

Of my two grandmothers, Daddy's mother was the quilter. She was a shoddy quilter. Everything was done on the sewing machine. Nothing met or matched. Even when she was using the old cotton batting that would ball up if you didn't quilt it close enough, her machine quilting lines were 4-6" apart. At a family reunion back in 2000, I asked my aunt and cousins if they had any of Ma's quilts. No one did. Except for my mother and me. Mama would run rows of hand quilting between the machine quilted rows while she was watching television. The one quilt Ma made for me...this one...
You can see how it twists...and some of the turtle feet don't match up at the intersections...yadda...yadda...yadda...

Mama told me not to get it dirty until I could either hand quilt between the rows, or could maneuver it on the sewing machine. When I was in high school, I did about two or three rows of hand quilting. Right. Row upon row of stitching 1" apart. Nah. I didn't have the patience or the 'want-to' back then. I opened up Mama's Singer one day and started machine stitching row after row after row...then turned it the other way and did the same. So that quilt is preserved. BTW, my other grandmother, Mama's mama...my Little Mama...embroidered some beautiful dresser scarves. That's hers (I think...or Mama's) in the above photo. Also in the photo...the quilt was a wedding gift to Mama and Daddy. The scissors on top of the scarf...Mama's oldest brother Harry bought those for her when she took home ec in high school. I used them in home ec too and have possession now. The little strawberry for needles was Little Mama's.

Little Mama's mama, my great grandmother, crocheted doilies and made quilts. I've quilted a few of the tops she made in her old age. I fingers touched every seam she sewed. Makes me happy just thinking about it.

She made this top for my cousin, Harry Wayne...he's in some of the family photos I've posted.
Mama handed me these blocks one day. I put them together for Jonathan.

Blue Moon

(You need to turn the jukebox off at the bottom of my blog.)








Who would'a thunk it? Where was I thirteen years ago when this was explained? Living in my own itty bitty world I guess. "Once in a blue moon," which happens only once every thirteen years, means...well, it means "once every thirteen years." Wow!!! How neat is that? It happens when there are two new moons in one month. The second new moon is called the blue moon.


Speaking of new moons. I went to see New Moon last night.


It was like the book...took forever to get to the point. And, believe me, it was definitely a teenie bopper movie. You should've heard the girls twittering when Jacob took his shirt off to wipe the blood from Belle's forehead when she crashed the dirt bike.


I understand that some grown-up women are all a-twitter about this series. My only suggestion is...go find a MAN!

The Proposal

...movie with Sandra Bullock...

Go see it! Several men were in the theatre and laughed the loudest.